A popular misconception about Airline ticket prices is that buying tickets earlier is always better. On the contrary it is often best to wait for good prices - sometimes to weeks of your trip although you generally are taking some risks to wait, especially if you have limited flexibility.
A good case in point is my upcoming trip from Medford, Oregon MFR to Minneapolis MSP. I've been watching tickets for this trip for months and the best deal I've seen was bout 450 until today, when I got our 3 tickets at 350. The online memo said "last three tickets at this price" and it is possible I've missed better deals, but this is generally a great price from our regional airport at Meford to MSP.
Even SMF and PDX - the major airports we sometimes use to save money - were in this price range today so this was a no brainer. Earlier I'd seen as low as $200 but that would have had us flying on Thanksgiving day on big fat full bellies. Not ... a pretty picture?
